In our earlier U.S. Pat. No. 6,648,960 B1, “Method of shortening a working and setting time of a CPC paste,” a heat-treatment method to effectively shorten working/setting time of TTCP/DCPA-based CPC paste was disclosed. Without such treatment, the working/setting time of this TTCP/DCPA-based CPC paste would be inconveniently long.
Continued study led to further development of a monolithic TTCP-based CPC with nano-sized whiskers grown on its surface, which composition demonstrates excellent mechanical properties and biological responses and bioresorption behavior. This newly-developed monolithic TTCP cement, however, displays a working/setting time that is too short for certain surgical applications, such as the rather complicated orthopedic and spinal surgeries.